I’m surprised to see that I still frequently use pretty much every on the original list for this topic–15 tools (mostly apps and websites)–even though I wrote that post in 2014. In fact, many of those tools keep getting better. The tools from that list I still use are: Mozy, Box, Basecamp, Trello, Google Docs/Forms, […]
A few weeks ago I was waiting in line with some friends at a local sandwich shop, Gioia’s Deli, when the man behind us got our attention. “Hey,” he said, “do you all know the secret word?” For some reason this seemed like a perfectly normal thing to say, so we responded that we didn’t […]
I’m 6 years into the business of designing and publishing board games, with 8 Kickstarter campaigns under my belt, and I’m still learning how to consume unsolicited constructive and negative criticism without experiencing a visceral reaction. On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d say my skin thickness is around a 6 on a good […]
“Am I doing enough to enable fans of my games to create and share content?” I’m not sure exactly what prompted this thought, but it struck me earlier this week, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. While I’ve always been flattered to see fan-generated content for my games, I’ve put it more in […]
On Friday, I ate ice cream thanks to another company’s proactive social media presence. The night before, I had posted my daily personal blog entry about ice cream spoons. The next day, while checking my Twitter feed, I noticed the following response: Clementine’s Creamery, a local ice cream parlor, had proactively seen my tweet via […]
Today is the first day of the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament. 64 teams compete in a single-elimination tournament, with an estimated 40 million people filling out brackets to see if they can guess the winner of each game. I’d wager that only a portion of those people care about college basketball before March. It’s […]
Recently I’ve noticed that more and more Kickstarter creators are advertising and soliciting previews before their projects launch. In the past I thought this was a bad idea, but I thought it might be time to take a closer look at this strategy. My Previous Thoughts If you’ve compelled me to click on an ad […]
Last year, as inspired by Steve Jackson Games, I released our first stakeholder report. A “stakeholder” in Stonemaier Games is anyone who has an impact on our company and a stake in our success, whether it’s employees, contractors, fans, retailers, distributors, volunteers, artists, designers, backers, readers, etc. I received the 2017 K-1 tax document from our […]
I was shocked to learn on Thursday that Funagain Games was shutting down their fulfillment service (and online store). [Update: Funagain later reversed this decision, and they’re still operational.] They were my top recommendation to Kickstarter creators for US fulfillment, right up there with Fulfillrite and Quartermaster. Coincidentally, I was planning on publishing a guest […]
[Edit: Please note that our Champion discount has changed. Check out the most recent description of Champion benefits at this link.] I was driving from Virginia back to St. Louis after Thanksgiving last year, and I couldn’t stop thinking about content. Specifically, whether or not I should ask people to contribute financially towards the annual […]
